Taxpayers brace for impact of new state budget

The state may at long last have a budget, but don’t expect cheering on the streets — at least not from a sampling of folks downtown Thursday.

“The budget is a travesty. The situation that got us to this point is even more of a travesty,” said James Woodard, 53, who lives in the West Town neighborhood. “All parties are at fault here, and they’ve totally left behind the citizens of the state of Illinois.”

Woodard said it’s clear the state needed a budget, but not with such unreasonably high taxes.

“The hope would be that they’d come to a budget that would provide [for ] the needs of the people … especially for those who really need the help, but would also cut back the spending, the waste, the fraud, the abuse, the special projects …” Woodard said.

Mary Childers, 57, of Palatine, agrees with Woodard.

“Tired of taxes all the way around,” Childers said. “Somebody has to make some cuts somewhere. I have to.”

Corey Lyons, 36, who lives in the Albany Park neighborhood, wasn’t thrilled about events in Springfield, but was glad that something was getting done.

“I’m glad we’re finally passing some sort of budget. I hope it gets something done. It’s kind of absurd it’s been two years since we’ve had any sort of budget. … I’m happy paying more taxes if it helps other people out.”